Tech, innovation key to growth, profit

FROM our travel and commute options to our vacations to the way we seek new relationships, technology has given us a breadth of choices and made access to them easier. All around us, we can see industries which have been or are in the process of being disrupted.

Perhaps what is less obvious is not how being "online" has changed retail, but rather the conceptual change behind retail which technology has made possible. Digital technology is therefore the great competitive leveller. Just as the rise of social media has changed how we interact with people, rapid advances in digital technologies are also bringing upon us changes in how we work, and gradually change our global business environment.

Access to technology, great ideas and an increasing spirit of entrepreneurship have allowed smaller and more nimble startups to help solve business problems. Therefore, as we increasingly operate in a digital economy, how companies operate in the future and the business models they deploy will also need to be more innovative and adaptive to change.…